OCEAN
by abetternameneeded
Summary: The place Alice wants to go to the most, she doesn't


Alice Jones sat in her cabin staring at one of the many maps of the various realms she knew about. She had traveled all over. Realm to realm. Some were better than others. Some worse. She'd gotten herself into some narrow scrapes. Managed to get herself out too. She'd gotten herself lost a fair few times. But if you _wanted_ to be lost to begin with were you ever really lost at all? She glanced at the map again. Where was she going to go? She had been so many places, loads of them, but there were still so many places she hadn't been. So many things she hadn't seen. So many things she hadn't done! She found it. She knew where she wanted to go for the day.

"No. Not Wonderland, Hatter." she told a small top hat she had sitting in her cabin. She could defintley use some more company but the person she wanted to be with the most, her touch could kill. So she was stil bloody alone, even if she wasn't trapped any more. There was that one...what was his name again? Spindlesticks? No! Rumplestilstkin. He'd check on her sometimes but for the most part she ran around the realms looking for a cure. And ran around the realms just because it reminded her that she was no longer a prisoner. She could go anywhere she pleased. Even if it meant often she talked to a hat and a stuffed rabbit when she felt a bit lonely. And then she was off. Gone for a few days, maybe a week and then back. And then she'd pick a different place and she'd look for a cure to the poisoned heart in all of them. Having some adventures and expierenceing the worlds she knew so little about.

She had gotten back from one of her latest adventures and was scanning through another map. Or maybe it was the same one? All of the realms were so big compared to her tower. Compared to the four walls shed been enclosed in for nearly her entire life. This time she just needed to go somewhere. Anywhere. Even if it was just a few steps away she didn't like staying inside more than she had to. "Where should I go hatter?"

She put a fake voice on for the hat. A way for her to feel like someone was giving her advice. "How about that ocean? The one in the painting?" Alice glanced at the painting sitting in the cabin. She had made it when she was ten years old. The last painting she'd mad_e before_ she had been made to be even more alone. Papa had told her it was "the calm before the storm." He had been right. That painting had been he calm before the storm that was him being forced to leave her alone in that tower. She was alone for years. But the painting had given her a weird sense of hope that one day he'd be okay and she'd be free and they'd go see the ocean he had always loved and told her so much about.

"No, Hatter. I want to go there with Papa. Where else?"

"Anywhere but Wonderland."

"Aye, Hatter. mr. Rabbit, you any ideas?"

Mr. Rabbit was far less talkative than hatter, funny since Hatter was the one without a mouth to speak from. Alice knew she was the one that made their voices but it made her feel so much less alone.

A younger Alice glanced at a painting she had made from the description her papa had given her. She loved this ocean, even if she hadn't seen it. He had told her about the Jolly Roger setting sail on it because it was always his favorite one to sail. "We'll go one day, you and me. When you get out of here." he had promised. And she had been ready for it. But then he had been poisoned and they couldn't be together. But they'd still go, one day.

Alice had longed to be free. And now she was free. But it wasn't what she'd imagined. She had thought the minute she was freed her and papa would go see the ocean. Hear all of the sounds he had described to her and mimiced for her. See all the things he had tried to paint pictures of. Smell the air that he said smelled like a slaty breeze. He couldn't very well bring a smell back to her tower, could he? But then he'd been poisoned and then she'd been freed and nothing felt the way it should.

"I miss papa," she told Hatter and Mr. Rabbit, they knew she did. She told them all the time. But it still felt good to tell someone how she felt.

Alice still longed to see the ocean in her painting. She had thought about going. Had thought about it often. But it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't feel right. It was the place she had wanted to go for the longest time but she couldn't go. She couldn't bring herself to go there. Not yet. It wasn't far and she had gone so many other places but this one was special. She wouldn't go. Not by herself. And certainly not without papa. She'd wait until he could go. He'd get better. He had to! She'd find a cure. She just didn't know how bloody hard that was going to be.


End file.
